Gastrulation is a highly complex series of cellular rearrangements that leads to the internalization of the mesoderm and endoderm. The cellular behaviors that underlie morphogenesis are dependent upon changes in cell motility and polarity. Eph receptors belong to a family of receptor tyrosine kinases that are involved in a variety of developmental processes. This study is the first to examine the role EphA4 during Xenopus gastrulation.
Morpholino oligonucleotide (MO) mediated knockdown of EphA4 resulted in attenuated mesoderm involution and reduced the expression of the posterior mesoderm marker brachyury (Xbra). Expression of EphA4 in the blastocoel roof was sufficient to promote ectopic Xbra expression. I show that EphA4 can regulate Xbra expression and involution movements by signaling through PAK1. Temporal regulation of Xbra was sufficent to rescue EphA4 induced gastrulation defects. This study has uncovered a novel EphA4/PAK1 pathway which is required for mesoderm involution and Xbra expression during Xenopus gastrulation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TORONTO/oai:tspace.library.utoronto.ca:1807/25571 |
| Date | 31 December 2010 |
| Creators | Evren, Sevan |
| Contributors | Winlkbauer, Rudi |
| Source Sets | University of Toronto |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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